Archive for July, 2017

With summer in full swing and warm weather the norm in much of the world, we thought we’d offer up a sample salad meal that is simple to make, a bit sweet and spicy, and of course extra-healthy. Overall, it shows how easy it is to combine different foods and make inviting meals, every day and in lots of ways, when we eat the HumanaNatura way and follow HumanaNatura’s OurPlate healthy eating guidelines. As you will see, today’s meal is decidedly Pacific-themed, in that it includes Pacific salmon, Hawaiian pineapple, and Asian sauces. All in all, it’s a varied mix of foods and influences, but one that nevertheless produces a cohesive and inviting whole.

Our HumanaNatura meal begins with a piece of salmon that is pan-sautéed on medium-high heat for about four minutes on each side, along with a bit of olive oil, finely chopped garlic and shallot, black pepper, diced white potato, sliced red bell pepper, and julienne-cut baby carrots. Once the fish and veggie mix are cooked, they are allowed to cool for a couple of minutes and then plated to the side of a generous portion of seasonal greens, halved grape tomatoes, and diced cucumber and pineapple. The fish is then garnished with a bit of oyster and red chili sauces, and the meal overall is dressed with a light vinaigrette, black pepper, and finely chopped parsley. A quick, easy, delicious, and healthy way to eat during warm weather, or anytime.

Learn more about creating naturally delicious and optimally nutritious meals like this via OurPlate, HumanaNatura’s simple natural eating guide for designing optimally healthy modern meals. Experience how this science-based and 100% natural approach to our daily meals can change the way you eat, feel, and live. Sharpen your skills at making delicious and naturally healthy Salad Meals via our Salad Meal Overview. And explore the science and key principles of optimal Natural Eating through HumanaNatura’s comprehensive Personal Health Program.

Once you have begun eating the HumanaNatura way, you can explore your many opportunities for new, more natural, and healthier life between meals – via HumanaNatura’s comprehensive four-part system for modern natural life and health. Check out the overview of our free health programs and resources at Welcome.

I would like to discuss the concept of health vectors with you. Health vectors are an important natural process, and a practical tool we all can use to better understand and improve modern health – notably at a group or community level, but also at a personal one too.

If you haven’t heard of health vectors before, you can be forgiven. It is actually a new term I have intentionally created to contrast with the more common idea of disease vectors. As you may know, the concept of disease vectors is an important model and tool from the fields of epidemiology and public health.

Broadly, all vectors are paths or routes. When we walk to a destination or an aircraft proceeds to a new city, we and it are following or tracing a vector. In principle, vectors can be straight or curved. And as my photo below suggests, in reality, vector pathways are often quite complex, and they even may be convoluted or circular and thus potentially self-reinforcing.

Vector Pathways – Simple In Theory, Complex And Often Interconnected In Reality

In epidemiology and public health, disease vectors are defined more narrowly as the actual paths, mechanisms, or agents that transmit diseases and other health threats or risks. For example, if a community faces health risks from malaria, food-borne pathogens, or drug abuse, the specific vectors or mechanisms of transmission might include mosquitos from a nearby wetland, area restaurants, or under-policed areas near a local highway.

By contrast, the term health vector is intended as a parallel but wider concept. It still involves specific paths, mechanisms, or agents, but as I indicated, it encompasses not only risks and threats, but also positive health promoters and opportunities as well. For example, positive health vectors might include particular sources of information, role models, and other community institutions.

Overall, and as we will explore next, health vectors are a somewhat complex but also enormously powerful tool for moving from general health awareness to specific resources or actions for increased health. For me, the concept and tool of health vectors is essential for anyone engaged in community health promotion, and it can be useful in our personal health promotion efforts as well, especially at an advanced level.

In this broadening of the idea of vectors from merely describing the transmitters of disease or health risks, as important as this may be, my goal is to equip people, communities, and societal institutions to better understand and act on the health dynamics operating around and within them, whether positive (health enablers) or negative (health limiters). Let me briefly provide a more precise and rigorous definition of health vectors, and then discuss several examples of health vectors that will demonstrate the use and power of the concept. Read the rest of this entry »